John Hitchens (born 1940) is an English painter. His work is influenced by the landscape of the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

and his main subject area is the countryside of West Sussex, England. He also spent extended periods working in North Wales and North West Scotland. Hitchens' paintings are primarily concerned with expressing patterns and textures of the landscape. During the past decades his work has evolved into an abstract style using a range of earth colours.

Biography

John Hitchens was born in Hove, Sussex, England. Both his father,

Ivon Hitchens Ivon Hitchens (born London, 3 March 1893 – 29 August 1979) was an English painter who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 du ...

(1893 – 1979) and his grandfather

Alfred Hitchens Alfred Hitchens (27 November 1861 – 5 October 1942) was an English painter, father, grandfather and great grandfather of artists Ivon Hitchens, John Hitchens and Simon Hitchens respectively. His work was regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy ...

(1861-1942) were also painters.National Portrait gallery listing for John Hitchens
/ref> He attended

Bedales School Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conven ...

near Petersfield, Hampshire, and studied at the Academy of Art, Corsham. Hitchens started exhibiting in the 1960s with a series of solo exhibitions, notably with the Marjorie Parr Gallery in London. His work is represented in several public and private collections in England and overseas. He lives near Petworth,

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

and works at the studio his father built in the woods. An exhibition featuring work by John Hitchens, his father

Ivon Ivon is a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979), English painter * Ivon Le Duc (21st century), Canadian politician * Ivon Moore-Brabazon, 3rd Baron Brabazon of Tara (born 1946), British politician ...

, his grandfather

Alfred Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlu ...

, and his son

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

, a sculptor, was held at Kevis House Gallery in Petworth in 2019. In March 2020

Southampton City Art Gallery The Southampton City Art Gallery is an art gallery in Southampton, southern England. It is located in the Civic Centre on Commercial Road. The gallery opened in 1939 with much of the initial funding from the gallery coming from two bequests, o ...

mounted a major retrospective of John Hitchens' paintings, covering more than five decades of his work.

Work in public and private collections

* Bradford City Art Gallery *

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is a municipally-owned public museum and art gallery in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. It is part of the "Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove". It is free for local residents ...

* Brasenose College, Oxford * New College, Oxford. *

Ferens Art Gallery The Ferens Art Gallery is an art gallery in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. The site and money for the gallery were donated to the city by Thomas Ferens, after whom it is named. The architects were S. N. Cooke and E. C. Davie ...

, Hull * Magdalene College, Cambridge *

Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer c ...

University of Chichester , mottoeng = By teaching, we learn , type = Public , established = 2005 , administrative_staff = 600 , vice_chancellor = Jane Longmore , city = Chichester, West Sussex , country = England, UK ...

Towner Gallery Towner Art Gallery is located in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. It hosts one of the most significant public art collections in the South of England and draws over 100,000 visitors a year. It was described by ITV News ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

Leicester University , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_label ...

References

External links

* * * Publications at the National Art Librar

Felix & Spear Gallery

From Sombre Lands: Piano Composition after a painting by John Hitchens (2013)

www.artnet.com

Christies Auctions past results for John Hitchens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchens, John 1940 births Living people 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters 21st-century English male artists Rother Valley artists 20th-century English male artists

Biography

Work in public and private collections

References

Further reading

External links